Steel guitars and other string musical instruments have long been manufactured having foot pedals or knee levers which are used by the musician during playing to produce different tones from the strings. It is understood herein that tones means desirable "on-key" notes and not distorted or "off-key" sounds.
It is common practice to tune the strings of a steel guitar in a particular chord in what is commonly referred to as the "open" condition, meaning that the tuning is done without the foot pedals being depressed. After the guitar is tuned in the open condition, it is retuned with the particular foot pedals with which the strings are associated in the depressed position. In this manner each string is tuned so that certain notes will be produced when the string is played without any pedals being depressed and it will also be tuned when each pedal is depressed producing different notes from that obtained in the open condition or position. As referred to herein pedals can mean hand, knee, foot or possibly other pedals or levers used for tone variations.
Oftentimes more than one pedal is connected to a particular string and it is common practice to connect various strings to one pedal or lever. For example a conventional twin-neck guitar may have a total of twenty strings, ten (10) on each neck, and eight foot pedals. Additionally, the guitar may have left and right knee levers each of which can be nudged in either the left or right direction to obtain pitch variation. Hence, eight foot pedals and two knee levers with dual positioning allows for twelve positions for achieving tone variations.
With the variety of pedals and levers used on conventional instruments, the problem of "split-tuning" has long plagued the industry. Split-tuning consists of tuning a string having two pedals connected to it so that a proper tone is produced when both pedals are simultaneously depressed. The tone thus produced may or may not be the same tone as that produced in the "open-condition."
An example of the problem utilizing a conventional instrument is as follows: a particular string may be tuned for producing a C note in the open condition. A pedal for raising the tone of that particular string may be attached whereby upon depression the tone will change to a D note. A second pedal or lever attached to the same string mechanism lowers the tone from that obtained in the open condition to a B note. Thereafter, when playing, if the musician wishes to raise the openly tuned C note string to the D note which is one full tone above the C note, he merely depresses the first pedal. However, with the first pedal depressed he is not able to produce a C sharp (C sharp being a half tone above the C), by depressing the second pedal, even though the second pedal is adjusted to lower the C note one half tone. With both pedals depressed the tone produced will be off key, somewhere between the C sharp and D tones and the C sharp sound cannot be achieved and another string must be utilized since split tuning heretofore was not possible. In other words, pedals which produce half tone or full tone pitch variations on conventional instruments strings from the open position will not maintain their full incremental tone variation when another pedal connected to the same string is depressed. Heretofore, simultaneous pedal utilization where both pedals controlled a single string produced tones from that string which were "off-key" or sharp and this problem has long been recognized in the industry. With this background in mind, the present invention was conceived in an effort to remedy the situation and produce tones "on-key" during simultaneous depression of two or more pedals controlling one string as the instrument is being played.